India: vast and confounding but rewarding
Freelance journalist Charles Anderson covered the Black Caps Cricket World Cup 2011 campaign for Fairfax Media. His media assignment to India was funded by an Asia:NZ grant. Charles also travelled to Indonesia in 2009 to be part of the ACICIS Journalism Professional Practicum, which Asia:NZ also supports. In this report he looks back at how a Kiwi journalist dealt with the many complex features of the unpredictable subcontinent.
A friend, who is entirely more attuned to the cosmic nature of the universe than I am, said before I left: “India will give you whatever you need from it.”
I was not sure what I needed, if anything, but the sub-continent has long been thought of as an escape. I began planning mine two years ago.
After an Asia:NZ opportunity to work in Indonesia in 2009, I was sure I needed another trip to Asia.
India seemed logical. It was one of the easier places to work in Asia, with at least a bond of shared language, heritage and sporting enthusiasm. With the Cricket World Cup planned for the subcontinent it seemed like too good a chance to pass up.
My brief was to write several articles broadly on the developing relationship between India and New Zealand, in the particular context of a looming free trade deal, which passed its fourth round of negotiations while I was in the country.
Part of the difficulty was nailing down specifics. There is a lot going on in India. And it’s big. In such a vast area, one had to be reasonably ruthless as to what would be manageable on the ground.
With the help of contacts back in New Zealand and NZTE I was able to explore potential angles and set up most of my interviews from home. Despite initial worry, as the deadline for my flight loomed, my plans came together surprisingly well.
I set up with the paper I was working for, the Nelson Mail, to have a regular travel column, and organised with Fairfax’s metro papers to file the other larger stories I was working on.
The stories ranged from Fonterra’s recent switch in strategy in trying to break into the huge and chaotic Indian dairy market, to exploring the relationship between the World of Wearable Art and its connection to India.
I arranged with the Dominion Post to write a story based on the struggles of a Punjabi family, now based in Hastings, and their issues with Immigration after they were found to be illegally staying in the country. I went to a slum in the city where the family was from and interviewed the residents on some of the struggles of living there.
I interviewed education agents and hopeful students about the prospects for study in New Zealand - a market that has grown exponentially over the last few years.
I went to one of the most progressive dairy operations in India, based in Northern Punjab, to see how technology was changing the way Indians thought about their produce. The owner of the farm, unbeknownst to me, also happened to own a five-star hotel. It was a pleasant and welcome surprise to me, having braved some of the bed bug, old cologne infested mattresses of New Delhi for the previous week.
I travelled on to Ahmedabad in Gujarat, to Mumbai and Calcutta, and then to Chennai to help cover the start of the Cricket World Cup.
It was a lot of ground to cover. But it kept me focused and allowed me to see the many Indias within India and experience the many Indians that live within it.
Without strict deadlines or an editor breathing down my neck, part of the struggle was making sure I was reasonably efficient. The explosion of tacky, wi-fi loaded cafes, that Indians only recently realised they enjoyed, regularly featured as my office.
The trip was not without its hiccups. They say in India you have to be scammed once and you have to become horrendously sick once. I am hesitantly proud to say I did both.
But the overwhelming experience was the honesty and hospitality of Indians. After travelling for some time you get somewhat of a gauge for fair prices. I found rickshaw drivers would give you back money if you paid too much. One driver was even so enthusiastic as to invite me into his home to have dinner with his mother. He had acted as a fixer for me earlier in the day, despite hardly speaking a word of English, finding a cricket bat manufacturer in Jalandhar that made gear for a present and former Black Cap.
I met a teacher who showed me around a crematorium in Mumbai that is usually closed to visitors. It was there I saw my first burning body.
I met the South African security manager for the Black Caps who, in 2008, had helped 150 Taj hotel guests escape a terrorist attack. He walked those steps from the 22nd floor of the same hotel for the first time since then, with me.
These were the experiences you can’t plan by email from New Zealand. They were the most valuable. They gave me so much more of an insight into Indian life, in all its diversity and complications, than I could ever hope to have with a set up for a simple interview.
I had to be more general than I thought a general reporter could be - seriously covering sports for the first time. I had the privilege of watching the Indian captain bludgeon the fastest one-day hundred in the country’s history. It’s a shame that privilege came at the expense of New Zealand. It was fortunate it was only a warm up game and did not count.
With the help of Asia:NZ I managed to experience all this. The publication of some of the articles was delayed, due to the plethora of natural disasters that hit home and abroad while I was in India. They have been published now.
At the moment I am sitting in the courtyard of a Rajput home built on land granted by the Maharaja of Jaipur 150 years ago. I am preparing for a trip deep into Rajasthan to cover a horse fair that has been going on for hundreds of years. These are the sorts of opportunities afforded to a journalist and ones I have been fortunate enough to experience with Asia:NZ’s support. I hope there will be many more.
Images supplied:
1) The streets of Old Delhi.
2) The Quila Raipur festival in rural Punjab
3) A girl stands in the middle of a make shift slum in Jalandhar
4) play cricket at Mumbai's central oval